Groupware

Framework

What is the Groupware

Framework?
Various Java standards are emerging in the area of electronic mailing and
scheduling. At the moment, the lack of an established standard
necessitates the usage of vendor-specific tools or libraries for integrating a
particular groupware application. For example, Microsoft Collaborative Data
Object is required in order to connect to the Microsoft Exchange server,
while Lotus Domino toolkit is required in order to connect to the Lotus
Domino server.
The Groupware framework provides an abstraction of the groupware APIs
across different vendors, thereby bringing in a standard for integration with
SAP Enterprise Portal.

Architecture
The Groupware framework provides an abstraction of different groupware
applications and provides the necessary APIs for integration with SAP
Enterprise Portal. Different groupware applications such as Microsoft
Exchange Server or Lotus Domino Server can be integrated by
implementing a set of APIs called transports.

The figure below depicts the Groupware architecture.

Transports
Connectivity to a groupware system is implemented and configured as a
transport. The transport implements the necessary API for data extraction
and submission to the groupware system in question by using the vendor-
specific libraries.

Note
SAP ships Microsoft Exchange and the Lotus Notes transport out-of-the-
box. You need to develop and deploy new transports in order to integrate
other groupware applications such as Novell Groupwise.

Systems
The credentials for the transports are maintained using systems. For more
information, see Creating a System .

Features
The Groupware framework allows the quick development and deployment
of reliable, secure, scalable, and manageable transports. It is written
entirely in Java programming language, which allows portability and multi-
platform support.

Functions
The Groupware framework supports the functions listed below. However,
the functions actually available depend on the transport deployed and its
capabilities. For more information, see the Features section of the
appropriate transport documentation.
E-mail
Sending e-mails using SMTP servers
Saving sent e-mails on groupware servers that support IMAP
Sending e-mails in HTML format
Sending e-mails with attachments
Including signatures in e-mails sent
Refer to SAP Note 1299989 for configuration steps.
Changing the default value of the number of attachments
Refer to SAP Note 1265992 for configuration steps.
Increasing the height of the default e-mail editor
Refer to SAP Note 1239602 for configuration steps.
Specifying the number of users to whom you want to send e-mails
Refer to SAP Note 1291383 for configuration steps.

Scheduling
Creating non-recurring appointments
 Creating daily/weekly recurring appointments
Sending non-recurring meeting requests
 Sending daily/weekly meeting requests
Reading appointments
Modifying appointments
Deleting appointments
 Modifying entire series of recurring appointments (Microsoft
Exchange Server only)
 Deleting entire series of recurring appointments
Modifying current instance of recurring appointments
Deleting current instances of recurring appointments
Sending meeting requests with attachments
Scheduling online meetings

Deployment Scenario
Groupware integration has been designed to allow employees of an
organization to access groupware servers using the portal. However, it is
not possible for external users such as business partners or customers to
use groupware integration, as there is no possibility of accessing the
groupware servers of one organization from the portal of another
organization. This is due to security restrictions.

Process Flow
The following steps have to be carried out to enable Groupware.
Configuring E-Mail
Perform the following steps to enable the sending of e-mails from SAP
Enterprise Portal.
1. Create a system
2. Install and configure e-mail connectivity
Configuring the Calendar
Perform the following steps to enable calendar integration in SAP
Enterprise Portal.
1. Create a system
2. Install and configure calendar connectivity
Configuring Native Web Clients
Perform the following steps to integrate native Web clients into
SAPEnterprise Portal.
Microsoft Exchange Web Client Integration
1. Configure Outlook Web Access and refer to SAPnote 732911See
also: Integrating MS Exchange Using Outlook Web Access
2. Refer to SAPNote 712902 for information on implementing single
sign-on for Outlook Web Access.
Lotus Domino Web Client Integration
1. Configure Lotus Domino iNotes See also: Integrating Lotus Domino
Using iNotes
2. Implement single sign-on to iNotesSee also: Implementing the
Ticket Verifier